


The Tower Of Death

by Valentine20xx



Category: Naruto
Genre: Can someone please add a category tag for Tecmo Deception?, Human Kyuubi | Nine-tails | Kurama, Protective Kyuubi | Nine-tails | Kurama, Several major characters get killed
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-06
Updated: 2019-12-07
Packaged: 2020-08-10 20:54:56
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20141845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Valentine20xx/pseuds/Valentine20xx
Summary: They had a wonderful idea on how to get rid of the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki...Simply toss him in the one place in the entire village where nothing ever survived for long...They didn't, in their wildest dreams, think he would THRIVE there...





	1. Dark Deals And Demonic Contracts

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto, Deception © Koei Tecmo. Both are used without permission.
> 
> Content Warning: This story will contain some very violent and gruesome imagery. If that sickens or otherwise upsets you, please close the story now. If you complain, I **_will_** point you to this warning.
> 
> I have been a fan of the Deception series since Kagero, and find it's interesting concept, of an otherwise completely innocent party forced to kill in order to survive. This story takes the concept of a Naruto who isn't given anywhere near the help he gets in canon, and the results it brings, both bad and good…
> 
> I will state that I created The Committee For Civilian Affairs as a reference to the fanon-created Civilian Council, whose only purpose is, as here, to be the thorn in Sarutobi's side when dealing with Naruto. In this case, it's a group of advisors who work with the Hokage, supposedly, when lines cross between the ninja and civilian populace, but actually, in recent years, have begun to overstep those boundaries...

_No-one wanted to admit to being the cause of the tower in the middle of the Forest Of Death. It was called the Tower Of Death not due to the boasting nature of the forest itself, but because all it brought was a swift, efficient and decisive end to an intruder's life. There was only one person who entered the Tower without ending up with it as their tomb, and that was the one known colloquially as the Trap Mistress._  
_The first was a forsaken child from the orphanage of the time, whose time as the Trap Mistress was what earned the tower it's reputation, as she lured many a person into it's doors, having no love for anyone in the village, so plenty of reasons to just slaughter anyone who came near her._  
_In more recent years, the Trap Mistress was someone hand-picked for plausible deniability, whose life would be claimed by the Tower when they retired. They were brought out to pass sentence on death row criminals and traitors, who had not earned the honour of seppuku, allowing for even more plausible deniability over their deaths. So far, every single person sent as caretaker for the tower never survived…_   
**That was until now.**

__

Hiruzen Sarutobi listened with half an ear as the woman in charge of the orphanage told him of some trumped up reason Naruto would be evicted in a few days, and her gleeful statement that she’d make sure, as soon as he walked out the door, everyone who wanted to know would be aware he wasn’t using up a bed a ‘proper’ orphan could use. What he was actually considering was the discreet missive to Anko Mitarashi for her to meet with her and ‘go for a walk’ with her in the forest. He had no illusions that the woman would live for much longer.  
He had even less that Naruto wouldn't survive very long after being evicted, and there would be no witnesses to the cold-blooded torture and murder that would go on. Well, if there was, every single person involved would not live to see another day. All he told them was that he'd look into it.  
Five minutes later, he met with Ibiki, and told him that the woman in question was suspected to have been given privileged access to S-Rank secrets of the village, and to interrogate her about them, using the excuse of a book-keeping error or other irregularity.  
If she was unwilling to explain to him why she had an unnatural hatred of Naruto, He was to let her know that she'd be visiting the Tower whatever she said, then call Anko. If she was willing, Admittedly, all that would happen was that all the people named would go as well. It was times like this that he liked still being the Hokage.  
Admittedly, He suspected Minato would not even have been as polite as to give her a interview room. She’d be visiting Anko and anyone who complained would go after her, damn the consequences...

However, his good mood immediately soured when he put what he was doing in front of the Committee for Civil Affairs, a civic outreach group that he had to deal with whenever civic law crossed into ninja affairs, like the sudden, immediate and total termination of the head of the local orphanage. The reason wasn't the fact they were obstructive, meandering and offensive.  
No, he'd _**expected**_ that, even more so when he mentioned Naruto's name, where previous times they had lost paperwork or required obscure forms done in triplicate with a particular brand of ink within the hour. No, this time, It was the fact they were, shockingly, _accomodating_.  
They listened, were attentive and approved the hiring of a new head of staff at the orphanage, while pretending the old one wouldn't be dead by sundown, and even told him that they would be happy to help him provide secure and permanent housing for Naruto to ensure no further incidents occurred.  
He was incredibly worried. Normally, mentioning Naruto resulted in non-committal comments, pointless discussions about completely the wrong subject or even outright railroading him into agreeing to completely opposite to what he'd asked for. In this case, it looked like he'd get exactly what he wanted and more.  
He waited for the kunai to drop, and, moments after they’d finished dooming the woman to the tender mercies of the most efficient assassination tool in the village, it did.  
"Due to the urgency, and the high risk he presents, our strong recommendation is that we use the Tower Of Death as his new accommodations forthwith," The head of the Committee stated, as if it had taken him hours of deliberation, when it probably took five minutes, including the declaration. The Hokage now knew why it had been so easy to get a concession. And now he had to pick it apart as much as possible.  
"The same Tower Of Death we assigned..." Sarutobi began, making as much of a great show of looking up the information as they had not doing so, "Anko Mitarashi as the Mistress of since we couldn't exactly reactivate her as a ninja of the Leaf due to, and I quote, prolonged exposure to a known subversive element..."  
"She's still alive?" One of the committee members asked, for another to look very confused, “I thought she’d died several months ago... They don't usually survive a whole month...”  
"Yes, and she's asking about retirement due to psychological issues..." Sarutobi continued dryly. They clearly hadn’t expected a _living_ Trap Mistress. Especially one who'd complete their assignment!  
"Hmm… That was unexpected… We will accept her retirement request, if she is able to pass a psyche evaluation," The head of the Committee offered, before continuing, "Returning to the matter at hand, It is the most secure location in the entire village. No-one would bother him, and we can all rest assured that we are safe..."  
Sarutobi winced harder. _They_ were safe, yes, and even immune from prosecution for anything that happened, but throwing him up there with no-one to control the traps beneath him, and, even if whatever eldritch horror possessed the brickwork of the building didn't kill him just for being there, they were reassured that he'd not be able to get back down alive. It was the politest form of death sentence that had ever been offered in the history of the village. Even worse, it was, otherwise, _a good idea._  
"So, What are we meant to do to make the place functionally liveable for such a young child?" Sarutobi tried, hoping for some chance to save Naruto from such a solitary, and potentially extremely short, existence.  
"There are functional living quarters that have not been used at the top of the tower?" The head of the Committee asked, "More than ample ones at that."  
"There is..." Sarutobi replied. They were meant for him to use in a crisis situation. No-one had ever used them, since the elevator was so temperamental. The accommodations just below them, he knew even less about, since they were even less used, being assigned to the 'Trap Mistress'…  
Not that Anko dared use them, for fear that she'd turn out like the first Trap Mistress, who had to be put to death because she went insane. When they claimed the Trap Mistress throughput was high, it wasn't due to exaggeration.  
"And the traps below are impassable by any subversive element that might want to get to him..." The Committee head continued, Sarutobi knowing he had pretty much won the argument.  
"There is." Sarutobi added, mentally adding, "As well as anyone at all getting in or out…"  
"That should be perfect." The civilian spokesperson said with a wide grin, already patting himself on the back for this. "We can send the de- the boy to the tower where he can live and we can all be in peace."  
"What about education or interaction?" the Hokage asked almost desperately. He could already see this was a losing battle. At the same time though…  
It might also be Naruto's best bet. The reason the man had won so easily was that he was, in spirit, right. Although the way it was done was barbaric in the extreme. He watched the jovial smile fall, just for a moment, as the man considered what Sarutobi had said. He was hoping the tower would kill him within days, if not weeks.  
"We will look into a way to supply books for education," The man offered, clearly only planning to make the smallest of concessions, "As for interaction, he may be a stabilising element for the inevitable trap mistress when fate chooses one. To force it would cause injury or death to the person sent..."  
Hiruzen forced down a sigh that wanted to escape his lips. He didn't want to agree. He was the Hokage, his word should be law here. However it was either a possibly secure location like the tower, or a little apartment building he had his eye on for the young boy… that would get vandalized within the week.  
The first offered some form of protection. The other a possibility of a normal life. However he could read between the lines. If he didn't accept this offer, They were planning to make the young boy's life hell.  
"Very well. I will find an escort for the boy myself." The old leader said with a heavy heart as he stood. "Unless there is more to be said this meeting is over." With that he turned and left the room, ignoring all the happy smiles that shined behind him. He just hoped he made the right choice. He needed to speak with Anko. She was, after all, the only person who could turn off the traps. Even he was facing death in the face just checking the upper quarters.

Anko looked towards him as she contemplated the sheet of paper in front of her. She'd just got back from her part in handling the orphanage's matron having less than legal thoughts about people in her care. She had no illusions about who she'd talked to the wrong person with. The woman had practically fingered the man across the room from her as putting her in this situation as soon as Anko walked in.  
Her and three fine upstanding members of the market district had last been seen by her as she closed and locked the door. She didn't want to watch them be coaxed into going deeper into the tower's killing fields. It was bad enough that an insidious voice told her the last one had died even as she looked over the sheet of paper.  
"Look, I sent my resignation in, got a lot of funny looks over the fact I'm able to still do so..." Anko offered, "I don't know why you're here, no-one but Ibiki comes this far into my part of the woods..."  
"Yes, You are, to my knowledge, the first time a Trap Mistress can be debriefed and reassigned..." Sarutobi sighed. He knew why Anko wanted out. She seemed to be more afraid of the tower than anyone else in the village, the nightmares she'd reported that it gave her being worse than what she'd got from remembering Orochimaru's experiments.  
"One thing I will say is that I probably will get the best night's sleep in recent history when it's over..." Anko stated, "You are going to approve it, aren't you? Even with this travesty, I’m out?"  
"I already have… This will be your last mission related to the Tower, You are being released from your commitment, if the Tower will accept it..." Sarutobi stated as he took out a large storage scroll, "Once it's done, your record will be expunged, and you will be able to return to your life before any of this..."  
"I felt like I was trading one master for another every time I activate the seal on the door..." Anko sighed, absently rubbing the scabbed area of skin on the side of her neck, "The bloody thing almost killed me when it sensed Orochimaru's curse seal… The injury still hasn't totally healed..."  
The old Hokage sighed not wanting to say what had to be said, so he gave the bare minimum. "You are to make your one, and only, trip to the uppermost floor of the tower, along with Uzumaki Naruto..." He stated, Anko frowning, "You are to put the contents of the storage scroll I have provided on the top floor of the tower, then put the tower into lockdown, and ensure to the best of your ability that there will be no Trap Mistress, unless fate deems it so. If you accept this task, please turn over the piece of paper in front of you."  
Anko considered what he was saying. He wasn't saying plenty, but what he did state was enough. Lock Naruto into the secure quarters at the top of the tower, then ensure no-one else would stumble in on him unless they really needed to. When she turned over the paper and looked at the mission instructions and payment for completion, she knew exactly why he'd been brief. The basic pay was equivalent to an S-Rank mission, plus it allowed her up to 3 years of full paid convalescence, at two koku worth of ryo for three years, whatever she decided. It was a massive pay-off, and she knew why.  
The mission instructions basically required she put Naruto in the upper quarters then leave. The scroll and locking the doors as she was leaving…  
They were all Sarutobi. He knew that, if she didn’t do that, he’d walk out of the quarters the first time he got bored, and the bastards would win.  
"Okay, What do you really want?" Anko asked, "You're clearly paying me off, and you and me both know that the place has worse bloodlust than some S-Rank missing nin… I failed my last psyche evaluation because of it, but even I know whoever made this mission is not doing this out of any kind of respect for the kid..."  
"The money is indeed to look the other way… And I think even you notice I bent my authority in what I asked you to do as well as the mission parameters..." Sarutobi sighed, puffing on his pipe, "My advisors… They want to wash their hands of the Tower, and have the last person sent into it's depths be Naruto, with little chance of him surviving. The scroll contains materials for him to learn with, as well as other quality of life items that they would prefer he did not have. It would really make me feel happy if, when I do retire or die, Naruto still lives atop the Tower, given something approximating a life..."  
Anko nodded, understanding why the scroll was there now. Sarutobi was making sure that, when history spoke of this day, he was not demonized for sending a boy into insanity or death with no hope. That damn council would be demonized for what was caused by it.  
"They pay me an emperor's ransom, ignore the fact they've basically sealed the kid in somewhere that will kill him or drive him insane..." Anko snapped, "I hope your gamble pays off, Hokage, because if it does, damn, I will want to be there when it does..."  
"And the rest pay will also come with regular psyche evaluations to make sure that you are definitely free of the Tower's influence..." Sarutobi sighed, "This is the one time that they had a good idea, even if with less than altruistic intentions, so I hope it will be saved..."  
"When this is done, I'm going to set light to this shack, leaving the equipment to burn inside it, get some of the most expensive sake I can, and drink myself into oblivion, so I never remember my time in that hellhole..." Anko stated, "Those old farts don't even know that, if our plan pays out, That kid will be the most powerful force in our arsenal… and, when the Tower finds him a servant, she will be the most lethal thing in Konohagakure."  
"I understand," Hiruzen reassured her, before cracking a smile as he stated, "Oh yes, and I'll leave you this really good Katon jutsu you could use for the fire too..."

When Anko returned to the shack, after depositing Naruto in his new home, she found the Katon jutsu, along with the money slip, two incredibly old bottles of sake, their seal unbroken, and several jars of oil, with a note commenting that it was hoped she knew which one to use on the shack, and which to use on herself.  
The last item was a copy of a signed edict forbidding 'deployment' of anyone in Konohagakure to the Tower Of Death against their will. Sarutobi had been serious. He'd done what he'd said, and more. The pyre that burned in the woods that night was large, bright, and burned well into the next day.  
Also, Anko woke up in an incredibly compromising position, with a killer hangover, her scarred neck healing up cleanly a few days later. Several months later, when the fence around the former Forest Of Death was taken down, the name passed into legend, since no-one, in their right mind, was likely to ever go near it, the Tower that stood in the centre of the area having overtaken it as the most dangerous place in the village.  
However, none of that was known to a young boy who was left alone, the people who ordered him put there safe in the knowledge that there was no way he'd ever disturb their peace. What they didn't think was that they created something worse by putting him there, but it wouldn't be for many years before it would bear bitter fruit...


	2. The Darkness Of Mortal Souls

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Even the dumbest person can guess part of what will happen in this chapter. A group of foolish idiots dropped a boy with a literal demon in his gut into an eldritch location that wants to kill… Well, practically anything with a pulse that passes through it's doors. Of course, there are more types of evil than what Kurama apparently is...
> 
> Also, keep track of Kurama's description. It will be important.

Once Naruto woke up after being dropped off in his new home, He felt the euphoria of a new nicer place to live. He even had some new books and undamaged scrolls, and even, for the first time ever, some toys to play with that no-one took away from him for some reason. It kept him busy as a man arrived outside to fit some kind of pulley outside the window, which allowed them to send up a new scroll with food and other things he needed, completely free. He didn’t understand why they used that pulley and bucket, when there was a perfectly good lift. Or why the bucket kept getting replaced...

Well, the lift had worked. At first. Then he woke up and the platform had got damaged, and ended up smashed at the bottom of the shaft. He wasn’t sure why that happened, only knowing that the scroll arrived every week, without fail, admittedly sometimes being a bit late, usually when they replaced the bucket, since it inexplicably gained a few dozen extra dents and scratches just from that one action...

As days turned into weeks, he found himself becoming very lonely. There was very little outside of the scroll that came up, especially after the platform fell down, and a brief exploration as to why the pulley was there gave him the depressing realization that people were not exactly planning to come visit him. He fell asleep one day, contemplating using the bucket that brought the scroll up to go down...

...and had woken up in a partially flooded sewer of some kind. He looked around the flooded chamber he was in and shivered, not due to cold, but due to fear. Why was he here? Where was he? Did someone reconsider putting him in such a surprisingly comfortable bedroom? Had they dumped him somewhere worse? He wanted the tower back, thank you. It was surprisingly warm considering the height. He actually wondered why the lady who dropped him off had that shack if there was lodgings up there.

All she'd said was that she didn't like the accommodations, then explained the term, then told him that he was well advised not to go poking into most of the building. There were apartments on the top two floors, and the rest was off limits. Then she'd added, almost as an afterthought, the chilling statement, "To anything alive..."

He was sure she'd been trying to creep him out. Breaking out of his musings, he realised the wind he heard had a regular pattern, and that it was actually something breathing. Not having anything better to do, and deciding that, if it was alive, it was likely not going to hurt him, he headed for the sound of the wind, which lead him to a chamber dominated by a massive cage door.

“Kit, I wouldn’t keep investigating stuff outside your room… This place doesn't exactly take kindly to those not keyed into it. And, admittedly, It doesn't take kindly to those that are… One or other will tire of the other, and your friend was lucky to escape with her life and sanity... It's not mentioned that she was the sole survivor of this place, period," A voice rumbled almost thoughtfully, causing him to back-pedal in shock at the sudden interruption, before he steeled himself and moved to see if he could tell what spoke.

"But… I want to see the rest of the tower!" He tried to reason, "And what if I want some fresh air?"

"You wouldn’t live long enough to enjoy either…" The voice rumbled, Naruto still unable to see them, "You're not meant to leave, and the Tower will make sure of that. It's why it was not used for it's original purpose. It has issues with letting people in, and even more issues with letting them back out... even after it's finished with them..."

"It might be nice and comfy up here, but I want to explore the forest and go back to the village..." Naruto pressed. The unseen other person laughed uproariously, before chuckling.

"Let me tell you something. That 'nice lady' who let you up here? She torched the shack she lived in, having moved into it to avoid having to stay in the place one floor below here, where she's meant to stay..." They offered, "Even they wouldn't want to go anywhere near here again even if you paid them… Hell, No-one's wanted to deal with this place for very long after the builder finished it, then committed suicide. They planned to make you as much a case of Don't Ask, Don't Tell..."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked, "It doesn't seem so bad!"

"The previous one to hold me knew of it…" The other person offered, "It's like this cage. It's intended to keep me in, and keep everyone else out. Period. They actually did TOO well with the Tower, in that nothing, except in some extremely rare situations, can get in... and nothing gets back out,"

"Hold you?" Naruto asked, even more confused, "What are you talking about? Who exactly are you?"

A tall young woman with white hair, a pair of red tipped animal ears sticking out of the top, and nine white tails, also with red tips, walked out of the gloom, dressed in an outdated style of kimono.

"I could come in my other form, but… We're trying to get things started in a better way than when I met your father…" She offered, before adding, in a dry tone, "He wanted me to go back to where I came from, someone else didn't want that. People got hurt. Some even survived… In one case, a particularly annoying bug just wouldn’t die, no matter what anyone did,"

If he'd encountered the woman when he was older, and knew what to expect, he'd have likely been afraid of her, and even invoked her 'other form'. But, at only a few years old and completely clueless, he latched onto a different part of what she said, not hearing the rest… ‘_when I met your father...’_

"You knew my father?!" Naruto asked, "What was he like? How did you meet? Why did he put you in that cage?..."

"Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Forgot you never got that information, damn secrecy laws… Slow down there, please, and I'll tell you. First things first, yes, I knew him, He was a great man, We met through your mother, and yes, He put me in here. Glad he did in some ways..." She mused, looking round the chamber, "I originally… worked with your mother, but a particularly bad encounter with those damn pin-wheel eyes completely ruined that arrangement..."

"I'm sure it wasn't your fault..." Naruto mused, the woman briefly looking at him in incredulity, in that he was likely the first person she expected to stigmatise her, and instead was the first person to look at it from her point of view, "Would it be bad to release you?"

"Look, Less beating about the bush. You hear about the nine-tailed fox demon?" She offered, Naruto nodding briefly, until she fanned her tails out, "The name's Kurama…"

"Hi, I'm Uzumaki Naruto. Nice to meet you. Still, as I was asking, Would it be bad to release you?" He replied, for her to look at him in stunned disbelief. She’d just told him she was the nine-tailed fox that destroyed the village when he was born, and he just treated it like meeting someone in the street.

"I killed your parents, several thousand people and destroyed parts of the village… Hell, from what I've seen through your memories, They've still not finished rebuilding it!" Kurama exclaimed, "What's not bad about releasing me?"

"I need the company, and, as you said, you really didn't want to do any of that," Naruto stated, reaching for what he assumed was the lock, "And if you're right about this place..."

"Child, Get your hand from there! Removing the seal like this is likely to change you, and not in..." Kurama began, for the first time in her life actually _not_ wanting the seal broken...

...only to land in the place set aside for the Hokage within the Tower, arresting her undignified fall by shifting into the common fox form that her form granted, the rest of the sentence lost in the rapidly cast norito.

"If you think I'm going to stay like this for the foreseeable future..." She grumbled, looking at Naruto, who began scratching behind one of her ears. Damn biology of this form. Damn really good fingers…

Ahh, that hit the spot. OK, Maybe a bit longer. Oh dammit! She’d not been stroked like this in centuries! When she took the form of a fox, she did have needs!

"So, What should we do now?" Naruto asked, beckoning with his free hand, as Kurama mentally wanted his other hand to just keep running through her head fur like that. For a fox, this was like a good massage. For a fox that was normally far too large for anything to scratch behind it's ears... It was heaven.

"We wait for the humans to deign to shake the bars of your cage…" Kurama snarked, "Well, that is what they do with demons? Stick them in a cage so they can stand well back…"

"But this isn't a cage. And if they want to do anything to me they have to come in right? So can't we do something?" Naruto asked, but Kurama was asleep, a pillow and shallow basket the only concession to bedding he could offer her. She'd contemplated it when she woke back up, before doing a vulpine equivalent of a shrug, and continued to use the basket. Sharing the bed was out anyway.

Over the course of several days, Naruto learned what Kurama meant about the 'cage', and how ignorant he was. Outside of the scroll, containing food and other 'essentials', bare essentials according to Kurama, nothing came up here. At all. He learned things using the books and scrolls, Kurama testing him and helping him with the more complicated words or concepts. But he never saw another human being, and Kurama didn't seem to want to change herself from her vixen form. Naruto realised part of what she'd meant, when he'd woken up to find he'd begun to grow a tail.

He realised the rest when days turned into weeks, which turned into months. They didn't come up. They didn't dare come up. When Sarutobi managed to restore the lift to functionality, nearly a year after Naruto arrived there, he had come up, to be surprised to see the kitsune in a basket, as well as Naruto's own developing kitsune features.

"They think I'm her..." Naruto stated, pointing to the Kyuubi, "The real monsters are the Uchiha for causing this..."

"Well, I can't exactly take the Kyuubi down into the audience chamber of the civic government. It would bedlam. Plus they'd think you'd kill them all because you're up here and most of the people who stay here more than a week go out and kill people when let out..." Sarutobi stated.

"Been there, done that, How's the western district?" Kurama offered, her head looking up. She’d practically flattened it during her trip through the village.

"Ruined." Sarutobi growled almost under his breath, before, returning to his original commentary, "Still, They don't believe that, thinking of you as the Kyuubi's new vessel, you won't destroy the eastern district as well..."

"Is that where they live?" Kurama asked.

"I will state that it is common knowledge within the village that a large number of councilmen do live in that district..." Sarutobi stated, "And I also have family property there..."

"Darn, that ruins that option," Kurama grumbled, going back to sleep. Sarutobi didn't like how the Kyuubi was out in the wild like this, Naruto not seeing anything wrong with the fact. In fact, as he made more visits, he noticed Kurama was acting as a form of filter of sorts. The lift that he used to come up was steadily more rickety every time he did, with Naruto offering that he didn't need it, so obviously it wasn't really needed there. 

After several visits, however, he was greeted by a slim figure with dark raven hair, wearing a fox mask of the same style as the ANBU and the Trap Mistress's garb, the lift having fallen away completely. Clearly he'd been too long if a trap mistress had been selected. And he knew this wasn't Kurama. He'd met Kurama's human form. She guided him towards a well hidden staircase.

"There were some intruders..." The girl stated, "I stress 'were'. I'll send their mangled remains for the pyre later,"

Sarutobi knew which 'pyre' she meant. No-one actually wanted to touch for very long any corpse from the Tower, so they just burned them together in private, with little ceremony. As he headed up a hidden set of stairs, he tried to make small talk.

"So, Who..." He began, for her to remove the mask she was wearing, revealing the face of Hiashi's daughter, Hinata, for him to offer,"I guess that this will be a long story..."

"And we have a lot of steps to go..." Hinata began, as she went into why she was there…

_It had all began when things had become untenable for her in the Hyuuga District after Hizashi's death, and only worsened after the passing of her own mother. Now it was all coming to a boil. Earlier, a group of branch members had asked her cousin Neji to look the other way while they went out to 'teach Hiashi's spawn a lesson'. She had begged him to not do it, but he just stared at her coldly before walking away, letting the men grab her and stuff her in a sack._

“I’ll have Neji’s head for that...” Hinata stated, “He might as well have paid them off,”

Sarutobi nodded, one of the times he’d ignore if someone ended up on the pyre. Treachery was an offence that was judged by the Tower. You passed a certain distance, the trap mistress summoned the lift. You didn’t get high enough… Judgement had been served.

_A few hours later, she was dumped out of the sack. She looked around and was shocked to realise she knew where she was. In the middle of the lowest floor of the death tower. They had just put her between a rock and a hard place, as they blocked off any option to leave except further into the tower. This was an assassination attempt, and no-one here was planned to survive. Especially her._

_"You'd best run, girl…" The leader of the mob stated, before he took out a katana, "Before I have to get my blade dirty with your disgusting blood…"_

_Not knowing what else to do, she fled, catching herself on a tripwire, narrowly avoiding losing her foot as she stumbled through a pair of razor-sharp blades that sliced through the doorway. In the entrance chamber, the men who abducted her jumped as the door slammed shut and locks thudded home._

_"Okay, Keep an eye out for tripwires or pressure switches, and keep the bitch running. You die, there's no ryo paid out to corpses…" He stated, resting in the arbitrary safe zone. He knew some of the rules of the death tower. They were whispered about throughout the village. One of the most important ones being that there had to be somewhere safe so people could actually enter. He didn't think that the tripwire Hinata had set off invalidated that rule, since it was safe… _

_...Until the first trap was set off. As invisible poisonous gas leaked into the air, He found himself falling asleep, and never woke back up..._

_Meanwhile, now several floors up, Hinata didn't like how this was going for her. Even with the hyper-awareness of her dojutsu, it was a massive risk to her just moving through this nightmare of a tower, knowing the stories of it, and how the tower seemed to feed off spilled blood and the souls of those who died in it. All she knew was that, even with that, the bigger danger was the men right behind her._

_She found herself surviving with milliseconds to spare, her clothes getting most of the mistreatment. She'd lost count of how many sets of stairs she'd stumbled up, thankful for a brief moment of safety. She knew why they threw her in here. She was to be another poor soul that stumbled into the tower, and fell victim to its insatiable lust for death. Either that or the demon that was said to live at the very top of the tower._

_Either way, they'd planned to have her accidentally stumble during sleepwalking into the tower… and no-one looked into deaths like that any further. The evidence wasn't worth looking for. As she entered another staircase she looked back to see if the men who wanted her dead were still there. A small voice in the back of her head suggested she kill them first, that she stopped, let their bloodlust cloud their judgement as they set off the traps she barely missed setting off herself._

_She shook her head. No, she wasn't going to give in to such a deviant wish. It would make her a murderer. The voice then told her that it would all be in self-defence, and was completely warranted. Maybe they wanted her to kill their accomplices with the tower, which was why they'd not gone in themselves…_

_Her thoughts turned dark as she paused, considering the floor behind her. For a moment, she imagined she could see each trap, could remove the manual trigger, and just will it to go when the fools blundered into the kill zone…_

"That was when I turned into the trap mistress, in hindsight... I will state that the only reason the tower hasn't killed you yet is that you are the Hokage, that small part of the programming of the seals on this place still... just about... working," Hinata interjected, "That and I… persuaded it that you actually care about either of us. If your successor doesn't care, I will not be held directly responsible for the fact they might need to use the lift,"

"Is that why the lift is of no use so rapidly?" Sarutobi asked, Hinata nodding.

“This is a place where, in a case where you are forced to escape to safety in case of invasion, you will be safe..." She offered, "The lift is only meant to be used two or three times in a very short period, and only by one person's authority. It is not for ferrying those lucky few who live back down, or you up and down repeatedly. Even with the fact you have that authority, you're meant to stay there until such time as someone like myself declares it safe... Not travel up and down it in the same day without approval,"

"Ah..." Sarutobi stated, realising that the lift broke since he wasn't meant to go down it again and again. Hinata then stopped, wagging a finger as she reached down and cut something, a pair of razor sharp blades cutting through the space before them.

"Now now, I'm also walking through here, Tower-san, and Lord and Lady Uzumaki would be so unhappy if I didn't arrive..." Hinata stating to the air, before looking towards him, "Sorry about that. Let's continue,"

Sarutobi shuddered. He had a feeling he knew why he needed specifically a trap mistress to tell him when it was 'safe' to leave when he arrived. Even this wasn't truly safe. It just bypassed the worst of it taking this 'safer' route. He also shuddered about how Hinata had referred to, presumably, Naruto and Kurama.


End file.
